What we learned, Tuesday 6 April
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great evening. Here were today’s major developments:
The Liberals were expected to regain the seat of Goldstein in Melbourne’s southeast. Tim Wilson was expected to defeat former ABC journalist turned “teal” independent Zoe Daniel, who won the seat off Wilson in 2022.
In another knife-edge contest, Peter Khalil, who was first elected to federal parliament in 2016, defeated the Greens’ Samantha Ratnam to hold onto the Wills electorate in Melbourne’s inner north.
Analysts were split on Greens leader Adam Bandt’s hopes of holding onto Melbourne, although a final call was yet to be made on whether Labor could regain the seat for the first time since 2011.
The race for the new Coalition leadership was underway following Peter Dutton’s defeat, with deputy leader, Sussan Ley, the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, and the shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, among the leading contenders.
Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial continued in Victoria. Ian Wilkinson, the sole sole surviving guest of the 2023 fatal mushroom lunch, told the court Patterson refused help in plating up the meal.
The coronial inquest into last year’s mass stabbing at Bondi Junction has heard from a Queensland police officer who said a lack of resources explains why her colleague overlooked an email requesting mental health support for Joel Cauchi a year before he stabbed six people to death.
And the Australian billionaire and Pratt Industries and Visy chair Anthony Pratt was photographed at the Met Gala in New York, donning a bright green suit with “Pratt 100% recycled” covering the entire outfit, from the suit to the shirt and tie.
Updated
Tim Wilson projected to win Goldstein back from Zoe Daniel
Zoe Daniel appears to have lost the seat of Goldstein, after the ABC called the electorate for her Liberal challenger Tim Wilson a short time ago.
While Daniel, a former ABC journalist, had initially claimed the win for a second-term shortly after results came in on Saturday night, postal votes have turned the tables in the Liberal’s favour.
With around 80% of the votes counted as of 5pm Tuesday, Wilson is leading on a razor-thin margin of 50.4% on a two-candidate preferred count.
Daniel had held the seat on a 3.3% margin after beating Wilson in the 2022 federal election. The loss marks the first for the “teal” independents who claimed wins in several inner-city Liberal-held seats in 2022.
Monique Ryan in the nearby Melbourne seat of Kooyong is also fending off a Liberal challenger, Amelia Hamer, who narrowed Ryan’s lead once postal votes began being being counted.
For now, Ryan remains ahead on 0.5% in a two-candidate preferred count – but watch this space.
Updated
